Smoking Gun » Digital PRhttp://smokinggunpr.co.uk
Ingenious PRThu, 30 Jul 2015 23:28:56 +0000en-UShourly1Social media news- Facebook Instant Articles go livehttp://smokinggunpr.co.uk/2015/05/social-media-news-facebook-instant-articles-go-live/
http://smokinggunpr.co.uk/2015/05/social-media-news-facebook-instant-articles-go-live/#commentsThu, 14 May 2015 13:18:25 +0000http://smokinggunpr.co.uk/?p=9287They say in social media land nothing stays still for longer than the average tweet takes to write. And whilst you might spend a while mulling over the best turn of 140-character-phrase, you probably get what we mean. With mobile-first rapidly becoming the standard, it’s unsurprising the latest update to the world’s foremost network- Facebook- is focusing on the way in which...

They say in social media land nothing stays still for longer than the average tweet takes to write. And whilst you might spend a while mulling over the best turn of 140-character-phrase, you probably get what we mean.

With mobile-first rapidly becoming the standard, it’s unsurprising the latest update to the world’s foremost network- Facebook- is focusing on the way in which users access content via devices such as smartphones. Introducing Facebook Instant Articles, a divisive new offering from Camp Zuckerberg that looks to improve the experience for people reading shared articles through the social media channel.

How does it work?

Traditionally, or perhaps more appropriately, up until now, whenever you click on an article on your Facebook News Feed you are redirected to the host website. For example, Guardian.co.uk. All this is beginning to change, because with Instant Articles the entire article will now be viewed within Facebook itself, reducing load-times for the content (which currently average out at around eight-seconds; not very long in real terms, but an age in the digital, super fast, give-it-me-now-or-I’m-going-home era).

Is everyone using it?

Nope. As of yesterday, New York Times, National Geographic, BuzzFeed, NBC News and The Atlantic were the only publishers trialling the new system, which is currently only live in the U.S. Europe will see its testing begin in summer, with The Guardian, Bild, Spiegel, and BBC News involved to begin with.

Sounds great, I’m sick of loading times from Facebook.

Hmmm. Yes, in many ways it does sound pretty good, and the whole concept re-emphasises the idea that Facebook is only as good as the content being shared, and the content will only be shared if people don’t have to wait around. There are plenty of critics, though. Already people are concerned over how much additional data will be stored by Facebook when users are reading articles in this way. We’d also say there’s a chance it could result in an even greater disparity between publishers, with those who don’t sign up penalised- inadvertently by Facebook users who don’t want to wait whilst a page loads up- for not getting involved.

How will it impact me then?

Well, in the simplest way of looking at things you can expect to start accessing articles on your mobile, sourced through Facebook, much faster. That’s bound to feel better than the current situation. It’s also worth pointing out that as of yet we’re not 100% sure of what this means for navigation into other pages of the website the article originated from. Facebook would never introduce a system that prevented people from clicking through to other areas of a domain from a single article, but if that takes notably more time than the single article took to appear within Facebook, it could actually deter people from bothering to click through to another area of the website- thus doing the publishers a disservice.

Anything else to add?

Not really. But if you do, there’s a comments form below, and we’d love to hear a few thoughts.

]]>http://smokinggunpr.co.uk/2015/05/social-media-news-facebook-instant-articles-go-live/feed/01-Article__new_.010 years of broadcasting ourselves (on brands and YouTube)http://smokinggunpr.co.uk/2015/04/10-years-broadcasting-ourselves-brands-youtube/
http://smokinggunpr.co.uk/2015/04/10-years-broadcasting-ourselves-brands-youtube/#commentsThu, 23 Apr 2015 15:39:29 +0000http://smokinggunpr.co.uk/?p=9119The world’s number one platform for sharing and streaming video content has made it to ten years young. And whilst it seems staggering that just over a decade ago we were without the Google-owned behemoth, you can’t argue with the dates. We’ve been thinking long and hard about the best way to mark this momentous occasion, and whilst it was...

The world’s number one platform for sharing and streaming video content has made it to ten years young. And whilst it seems staggering that just over a decade ago we were without the Google-owned behemoth, you can’t argue with the dates.

We’ve been thinking long and hard about the best way to mark this momentous occasion, and whilst it was tempting to piece together a compendium of our favourite YouTube moments, chances are a collection of cat videos wouldn’t be much help to the brands we’re trying to assist by keeping our blog updated with handy information. As such we went back to the drawing board.

Over the years there have been innumerable changes to the site, countless updates, many controversies and a plethora of great achievements. News has been broken, stars have been made, and companies walked away triumphant after investing time and money on creating content specifically for the network. So brands and YouTube can potentially enjoy a great relationship, providing the former gets it right. This got us thinking about the best and worst aspects of actually using the network, and so we present our Top Five Problems and Top Five Plus Points when it comes to YouTube- all in all making 10 factors any company needs to consider, tying in with the whole tenth birthday thing (get it?).

Here we go then.

Top Five Plus Points of YouTube

User numbers and volume of traffic

Back in 2013 YouTube hit the 1billion unique hits per month mark. That’s around 1/7th of the global population logging onto the domain every 30 days, or thereabouts. This figure is even more astonishing when you consider that – a) it’s now 2015; and b) as of 2014 only half of the world’s population had access to the internet. In short, just under one third of all internet users will visit YouTube at least once per month. How’s that for reach?

Ease of use

One of the reasons for YouTube’s phenomenal success is the fact it’s easy to upload, curate, and share content both on and from the site itself. This means that even companies with no digital media training, and those without digital representation, can become part of the YouTube world.

Channels

A cornerstone of YouTube, by allowing anyone with an account to create channels containing not just their own content, but content sourced from other users, the network has made us all into potential broadcasting giants. From a brand perspective, this means it’s possible to open a go-to web domain full of every video the company has ever made or shared, which can then be passed to prospective partners, customers and investors- just like a streaming portfolio of marketing highs.

Copyright protection

Although this doesn’t always prove popular with users, from a business perspective the fact that YouTube offers copyright protection is definitely a good thing. Nobody wants their original work to be used without permission, and everyone wants to be able to action a complaint, and have stolen content removed when necessary. Without such regulation things would be much messier.

Google search visibility

When Google bought YouTube for a mind-melting $1.6bn in 2006, the move was divisive. Independent early adopters of the platform thought this would signal the death of neutrality, and whilst things have become much more money-oriented (and not always in a good way- see our Top Five Problems), one of the major benefits of this is visibility in Google search. YouTube content that has been correctly tagged by the creator always appears high in Google results, and the search functionality within YouTube itself is now second to none, and more efficient than many rival search engines (mentioning no names… Bing). In short, if you have something on YouTube, people have a good chance of finding it, despite how much content the network hosts.

Top Five Problems with YouTube

Advertising

As the years have flown by, YouTube’s commercial goals have increased. This has led to an exponential rise in advertising on the platform, which makes some sense from a business perspective (see the audience figures quoted in our number one Plus Point), but for users ads are viewed as intrusive and disruptive of the experience. Not least the 19-second versions that cannot be skipped.

Poor quality event clips

Most relevant from the perspective of music and entertainment companies, nevertheless as smartphone cameras have improved microphones and low-lighting video capture hasn’t come on nearly half as much. This means that for every professionally shot, paid-for clip a company has funded and wants sharing, people searching for footage from an event are likely to be offered a load of poor quality alternatives that never paint the best picture of what happened. There’s nothing that can be done about this, either, such is the nature of user-generated content.

Accidental copyright infringements (and the pains of avoiding them)

OK, so we also included this in our Plus Points, because original content deserves to be protected. That said, it’s easier than many first time brand users think to create a great video, and then realise the footage is unusable during post-production because it features an unrelated brand, or, worse still, elements-either visual or aural- that could well mean the firm is facing a fine due to (C) issues.

The mounting cost of creating good videos

Whilst Johnny286USA can get away with posting videos of any quality, a brand cannot. As technology has developed during the last decade, the expectations of what a good clip should look and sound like have also come on leaps and bounds. If you want to get content shared in a serious way then realistically shooting with anything below HD using an external mic is no longer fit for most purposes, meaning the price of your campaign may be a little more than originally estimated. And that’s before you’ve drafted in someone with deft editing skills to compile the footage at the end of filming.

This video has been removed because it is too long

YouTube experts will understand that the 15-minute maximum length of time for clips on the platform isn’t set in stone. Those who are relatively new to the network won’t. Worse still, you’ll only be told a video is too long after spending valuable time uploading it. Avoid falling foul of the rule by verifying your account properly- log in, click the ‘Upload’ link, then click the smaller link that simply says ‘Upload HD videos in various formats up to 15 minutes. Increase your limit‘. After a short process of inputting information, you’ll be free to create and share longer videos.

Did we miss anything out? Let us know your YouTube highs and lows in the comments box below.

]]>http://smokinggunpr.co.uk/2015/04/10-years-broadcasting-ourselves-brands-youtube/feed/0157631930youtube_errorSocial networking for business: Will Facebook At Work work?http://smokinggunpr.co.uk/2014/12/social-networking-business-will-facebook-work-work/
http://smokinggunpr.co.uk/2014/12/social-networking-business-will-facebook-work-work/#commentsThu, 11 Dec 2014 12:17:08 +0000http://smokinggunpr.co.uk/?p=8604With half the country in full-on December swing it seems rather Grinch-ish to be focusing on what happens after Christmas. Nevertheless, January will be here before we know it, and as such it pays to be prepared. One of the biggest talking points of recent weeks, social-media-speaking, is the imminent arrival of Facebook At Work, which, according to some commentators,...

With half the country in full-on December swing it seems rather Grinch-ish to be focusing on what happens after Christmas. Nevertheless, January will be here before we know it, and as such it pays to be prepared.

One of the biggest talking points of recent weeks, social-media-speaking, is the imminent arrival of Facebook At Work, which, according to some commentators, could be with us as early as next month. Put simply, this is a brand new, stand-alone platform created by Camp Zuckerberg in a bid to outdo LinkedIn on the communities-for-enterprise front. That’s quite a task, when you consider LinkedIn hit the 300million members mark back in April this year, at which point the majority of users were ‘international’, i.e. not based within the U.S., making for something of a global online business community.

Of course Facebook has plenty of experience at doing the almost-unthinkable. How a social network for an elite university managed to become a go-to means of instant communication and opinion sharing for more than 1billion is beyond us. Notwithstanding the clever algorithms, tactile gradual expansion plan, massive level of inbound investment and huge glaring gap in the marketplace at the time it launched, what the Big Blue Book has achieved is remarkable when you consider we’re still in its first decade of existence.

But can the platform be adapted to become a bonafide business tool?

The industry press has been quick to point out several gaping holes in the plan, not least the fact people are already feeling their time is stretched by the number of networks they have accounts on. Further to that, there are enormous trust issues when it comes to establishing Facebook At Work. A huge number of major firms have already taken steps to block the original Facebook from in-house web browsers in a bid to reduce staff distractions. Then there are issues surrounding the distribution of information via social networks- will confidentiality be safeguarded sufficiently to satisfy would-be-users? The jury is still out on these points.

Clearly if those two items are not addressed Facebook At Work will be dead in the water when it’s dropped into the proverbial sea for that sink or swim baptism of fire. Nevertheless, by all accounts LinkedIn is not necessarily the platform it professes to be. As a means of reaching out to potential professional contacts the network is great- anyone with a profile will know just how regularly they come across someone that could well prove useful to know, or how often someone makes contact with them that may, in the future, serve a real purpose. But the question is, in a world reliant on conversions, how many of these actually make a difference in the long run?

Let’s look at a few facts.

Back in 2012, according to research by HubSpot, LinkedIn was 277% more effective at generating B2B and B2C leads than Facebook and Twitter, with 2.74% of visits resulting in a genuine lead. That was bad news for the other two networks, but realistically 2.74% is still a relatively low figure when you consider that circa 2013 2% of cold calls would result in an appointment, if this Slideshare from Buzzbuilder Lead Generation Software is to be believed…

Reading even further between the lines, one year after those numbers were released, Optify, a digital marketing software provider, revealed wildly different results- with Twitter generating nine times more B2B leads than Facebook or LinkedIn, and 82% of social media leads coming from Twitter. Add to that figures from Constant Contact research, which suggest only 29% of small businesses surveyed feel LinkedIn is effective as a business tool, in contrast to Facebook’s 82% positive reaction, and the landscape begins to look a little different.

It’s always easy to make assumptions, but as fans and daily users of LinkedIn we can’t help but notice the level of irrelevancies it throws up, which is a big bone of contention for many. People make irrelevant connections in a bid to project an image of themselves, or their LinkedIn profile, as being intrinsically connected to everyone, everywhere. It’s only when you dig into those connections you realise there are plenty of pointless names and job titles buried in the overflowing contacts book.

Then there’s the ‘Endorsement’ function- who hasn’t been endorsed by someone they have never worked with, for a skill that doesn’t really feature in their regular business duties? Like Team Followback on Twitter, but for tasks, realistically those guilty of endorsing people they don’t actually know are worth endorsing do this in the hope they will be endorsed back, nullifying the point of endorsing in the first place.

We know what you’re thinking- if the word ‘endorse’, or any derivative, appears one more time you’ll endorse us for repetition, so enough said- let’s move on with a quick conclusion.

The overall point of this spiel is simple, then. Facebook At Work has several monolithic hurdles to get past if it is going to survive. But then LinkedIn isn’t all it’s cracked up to be in the eyes of some users, and now it has opened ‘Influencer Blogs’ so any Tom, Dick or Sarah can post content it’s partly a blogging platform with messaging functionality and a nice place to keep your CV. Not necessarily what everyone wants.

With these nuggets of information in mind it seems Zuckerberg et al may well find themselves a nice little gap in the market for Facebook At Work, providing they listen to the complaints of those unhappy with LinkedIn and consider how to service them when it comes to social networking for business. As the facts and stats referenced here go to show, opinion is divided on which networks work best for which tasks, and that’s because different industries behave in different ways, and as such really it’s about deciding for yourself based on your unique business needs.

]]>http://smokinggunpr.co.uk/2014/12/social-networking-business-will-facebook-work-work/feed/02df0eccCold CallsVlogger advertising and promotion- where do you draw the line?http://smokinggunpr.co.uk/2014/11/vlogger-advertising-promotion-draw-line/
http://smokinggunpr.co.uk/2014/11/vlogger-advertising-promotion-draw-line/#commentsWed, 26 Nov 2014 15:52:58 +0000http://smokinggunpr.co.uk/?p=8539Rules, regulations, guidelines. Irrespective of your industry- whether you make a living from award-winning public relations like us, or sell shares to investors in The City- we all have to work within the legal framework set out by whatever regulating body looks after our particular field. But what about when those defining directives aren’t made abundantly clear to everyone involved?...

Rules, regulations, guidelines. Irrespective of your industry- whether you make a living from award-winning public relations like us, or sell shares to investors in The City- we all have to work within the legal framework set out by whatever regulating body looks after our particular field.

But what about when those defining directives aren’t made abundantly clear to everyone involved?

Such a situation has unfolded this month, and come to a head this week with a statement from the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA), delivered in the form of a concrete warning to people producing video content on YouTube. Needless to say, we’ve been here before.

Not so long ago, something of a debacle emerged between content creators and music licensees as a result of people making- and getting rich from- online clips, soundtracked by songs that, unbeknown to most of them, they had no legal right to use. The outcome was a few hefty fines and a slap on the wrist, which is understandable when you consider how little the majority of recording artists actually earn from their work these days, and how much some YouTube stars are bringing in from selling ads on their channels, which have become popular due to the quality of overall production (including soundtrack).

It’s proof that whenever you have a platform like YouTube, which is dominated by user-created content, there will always be problems in terms of legalities until someone (or some body) steps in. And this has once again rung true in the case of vloggers (video bloggers, if you’re not up with the lingo just yet), who have been given a ticking off by the ASA for failing to make it clear some of their clips were actually sponsored by the companies whose products appeared therein.

Put simply, then, in June a group of UK vloggers was asked to say nice things about delicious Oreo cookies, on camera, and share to their online followers. This happened, and the producers were financially rewarded for their efforts. The issue is the clips themselves were not marked as advertisements, promotional pieces or sponsored content. Something the ASA vehemently frowns on because it’s misleading the public, with the potential impact being the same as product placement on TV. In short, they had engaged in what you might call covert vlogger advertising.

It’s not necessarily a case of cash-hungry types looking to get a bit more money whilst still appearing editorially neutral, mind. In many instances, the so-called stars of YouTube simply haven’t had the right training and don’t have the necessary legal understanding to see what they are doing is wrong. One such character, Chyaz, a beauty and fashion vlogger based here in our home city of Manchester, explained that the laws ‘had not been made obvious’, and that having guidelines was good as it meant they could guarantee what they were doing was ‘actually right’.

Of course it’s very easy to wag a finger and right this off as simply a problem that stems from that lack of professional training. Yet it also calls into question the increasingly blurred boundaries between content creators, owners and editors; and the firms that so desperately want their products and services to be featured in that content. To use the instance of music, again, we all know the interviews with pop stars that appear in the papers and online come from agreements with PRs- they have a tour or record to promote, the publication has pages to fill. The entire reason for the article’s existence is to sell both the title and the product/celebrity, however this isn’t made clear and nor does it have to be.

This becomes even more complex, though, when you look at the interdisciplinary nature of the media in 2014. The rise of the freelancer might be fascinating, but it also poses a few problems when the various pies they have various fingers in are considered. For example, a publicist, agent or manager may also write for one or two publications, and as such it’s not hard to imagine they won’t, at some point, cover the artists they are also looking to promote for their other source of income.

As a general rule of thumb, then, obviously it’s vital for brands to maintain as much transparency as possible when looking to sponsor content, and to ensure the person they are sponsoring tows the party line. That could be by labelling the video as an advertising feature (like you would in print), by using a corporate logo on the thumbnail or in the corner of the clip, or pretty much any other way you can think of that would ensure viewers can’t possibly miss the fact that what they are watching has been paid for. But this doesn’t really answer the wider question; where exactly do we draw the line between content, advertising and promotion?

]]>http://smokinggunpr.co.uk/2014/11/vlogger-advertising-promotion-draw-line/feed/0sponsored-content-for-brands-resized-600.jpg5 ways to avoid social media automation damaging your brandhttp://smokinggunpr.co.uk/2014/11/5-ways-avoid-social-media-automation-damaging-brand/
http://smokinggunpr.co.uk/2014/11/5-ways-avoid-social-media-automation-damaging-brand/#commentsThu, 13 Nov 2014 15:22:31 +0000http://smokinggunpr.co.uk/?p=8377You don’t have to be an award-winning public relations agency to realise that the digital world- when it comes to promoting a company, product or service- is highly demanding. It is, highly demanding. In the modern age firms are now expected to act like PRs have been since the invention of the mobile phone. Whilst organisations don’t catch trains, if they did...

You don’t have to be an award-winning public relations agency to realise that the digital world- when it comes to promoting a company, product or service- is highly demanding. It is, highly demanding.

In the modern age firms are now expected to act like PRs have been since the invention of the mobile phone. Whilst organisations don’t catch trains, if they did that time spent on the move no longer represents an hour or two to catch some breath. You need to live, breath and eat engagement, which means forgetting about sleep altogether (the old never switch off mantra).

There is, of course, a problem with this. Everyone needs a rest at some juncture in the day, to both recharge batteries and prevent the onset of madness. And this curious catch-22, wherein we’re expected to be everywhere all the time but still conscious enough to think logically, has led to a huge increase in social media automation tools.

As a digital and social media agency we would never advocate relying solely on automated posts for social media; it takes some of the fun away from representing a brand or business on relevant networks, and doesn’t really allow much leeway for ad hoc and spontaneous interactions, which are often the most effective way of building fans and followers, and cementing relationships with an audience. Nevertheless, there is a time and place for most things, and with that in mind we have come up with the following guidelines you must adhere to if the words ‘automation’, ‘social’ and ‘media’ ever get the go ahead in your HQ…

If you’re engaging in concepts such as scheduled tweets then clearly these are pre-meditated, and set for a time you are predicting to be relevant. This doesn’t mean the copy (i.e. words) involved have to sound like that. Robotic, mundane and uninspired turns of phrase, along with sentences that sound as though they are one in 100 tweets written that day, well in advance of the issuing hour, simply aren’t worth the effort as people not only see through them in a second, they are likely to ignore the content due to the overwhelmingly boring format you have used.

3. Observe ensuing interactions and engagements

Automated social media posts are a great way to investigate your audience’s ‘peak time’. By this we mean it’s important to analyse when people are engaging and interacting with your content the most within both the day and week- it will afford you invaluable information as to the most effective moments to schedule tweets, whilst also offering an insight into when ‘live posts’ are likely to offer the biggest return.

4. Never replace real time with automation

As we have already stated, although automated social media can come in very handy- and not just for one man (or woman) bands whilst on holiday- it is by no means, shape or form a suitable alternative to real time updates. They key is to run a mixture of both, and vary the quantities so as to not be perceived as predictable by your audience. Trust us, we’ve been doing this for a while.

5. Remember one size does not fit all

This is really a rule of thumb when it comes to social media in general, but as such it’s relevant to automated posts. Put simply, Facebook is not the same as Twitter, is not the same as Google+, is not the same as (INSERT NETWORK NAME, again, and again. And again). This means that you need to adjust, re-write and rebrand content of all kinds for each network you are posting to.

Thought for the Week

“I’m not sure that the task of journalism has changed that much: we still send journalists to unearth stories and break news. But Twitter is our competition, and we have faced up to that reality,” Matt McAllester, Europe editor for Time, speaking at...

Weekly High

Everyone knows not to trust that self-righteous, sanctimonious classmate at university- the one in all those societies but who has never actually existed outside academe. Yet plenty have time for Russell Brand, a chap who this week proved it’s not a good idea to wax lyrical about ‘politics’ with pipe dreams and adjectives as people began to liken him to the spoken words on Blur’s hit, Parklife, resulting in the funniest Twitter meme of the week, which even spilled over to Amazon’s user reviews.

Weekly Low

Germany isn’t used to rail strikes, and whilst we agree with industrial action when no other route will work, it seems rather optimistic to expect public support for a walkout when you decide to do it over the four days in which the country will try to celebrate unity, free passage and solidarity- with this weekend marking the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Just in case you missed it

The new John Lewis Christmas ad has been unveiled, even if it’s only two days since bonfire night. Unsurprisingly, it has resulted in a swathe of gushing comments online and a ton of articles; we’ve embedded it below, so see what you think.

]]>http://smokinggunpr.co.uk/2014/11/blaggers-blog-7th-november-2014/feed/0why-is-twitter-s-logo-named-after-larry-bird–b8d70319da60979berlin20wall20freedomAnonymous social media cannot impede the lawhttp://smokinggunpr.co.uk/2014/10/anonymous-social-media-impede-law/
http://smokinggunpr.co.uk/2014/10/anonymous-social-media-impede-law/#commentsThu, 30 Oct 2014 16:22:13 +0000http://smokinggunpr.co.uk/?p=8253They say the era of the selfie is coming to an end. Whether that’s true or not, it’s hard to deny that online networking is turning from self-promotion to faceless engagement, but what does this mean for crime and redemption? With news hitting this month that Facebook is preparing to launch Rooms, a stand-alone social media app that allows users...

They say the era of the selfie is coming to an end. Whether that’s true or not, it’s hard to deny that online networking is turning from self-promotion to faceless engagement, but what does this mean for crime and redemption?

With news hitting this month that Facebook is preparing to launch Rooms, a stand-alone social media app that allows users to post, make comments and share pictures anonymously, more than a few eyebrows have been raised. Standing behind your opinions has always been a cornerstone of Zuckerberg’s modus, meaning this decision stands in contradiction. Yet, with more and more platforms offering a similar service, it seems everyone must move with the times.

Room (not the Facebook version, but the indie site), Whisper, Secret, the Insider, Awkward and Cloaq are all names that have made headlines as anonymous social media outlets. A key catalyst behind this growth being fears over how much information has been thrust into the public realm by the major networks, and how many personal details they share with investors and partners. An understandable reaction, despite the validity of such concerns, though, I’m not the only person who views these models with some degree of skepticism.

The most obvious problem is cyber-bullying. It’s far easier for trolls to target people when they don’t have to put their name to the insults. Earlier this month, Justice secretary Chris Grayling pledged to change the maximum prison sentence for online abuse from six months to two years, with the statement coming just weeks after TV presenter Richard Madeley’s daughter, Chloe, had received sexual threats online for defending comments made by another her mother and former This Morning host, Judy Finnigan, regarding convicted rapist and footballer, Ched Evans.

Similarly, defamation is another important point to consider. A landmark instance being Lord McAlpine, who felt the furore of some 10,000 Twitter users accusing him of being a paedophile. Filing law suits against each, in the end he dropped the cases for those with fewer than 500 followers providing they gave a donation to Children In Need. Nevertheless, had the identities of those guilty been ‘masked’, chances are more individuals would have been involved, and the route to redemption would have been much more complex.

Ultimately, though, it’s not all such worrying news. Already steps are being taken to remove harmful and abusive posts on anonymous networks. For example, Secret and Whisper both outsource to surveillance companies who monitor the nature of posts, with algorithms also used to avoid human error. Meanwhile, the cyber footprint left by every computer’s IP address means in legal scenarios it will always be possible to track down who said what, when and where from- at least to the point of which computer was used to issue the offending comments.

In contrast, from an advertising, brand and public relations perspective, the water is a little muddier, because without key information about user preferences and behaviour- the likes of which, on the whole, are not studied or stored by anonymous networks- many of the benefits of salesmanship in the digital age are null and void. Quite what impact this will have on the industries in question remains to be seen, but with declining user figures for young people on mainstream platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google+, and the rise of anonymous networks, clearly facelessness is an idea professionals can’t afford to ignore.

]]>http://smokinggunpr.co.uk/2014/10/anonymous-social-media-impede-law/feed/0460773149Guest Post: Should Your Business Be On Instagram?http://smokinggunpr.co.uk/2014/07/guest-post-business-instagram/
http://smokinggunpr.co.uk/2014/07/guest-post-business-instagram/#commentsWed, 16 Jul 2014 17:04:56 +0000http://smokinggunpr.co.uk/?p=7818Today we have a guest post from Alex Goodwill, talking us through the key to Instagram growth for your brand. Enjoy! Even if your business is not considered to be a visual one, you could still benefit from setting up an account on Instagram. The photo based social network currently boasts more than 150 million active users and it is...

]]>Today we have a guest post from Alex Goodwill, talking us through the key to Instagram growth for your brand. Enjoy!

Even if your business is not considered to be a visual one, you could still benefit from setting up an account on Instagram. The photo based social network currently boasts more than 150 million active users and it is one of the fastest growing social media sites in the world! So should you be using Instagram to market your business?

The first thing that you need to consider is whether or not your target demographic is actually on Instagram or not. An easy way to get a rough idea of your audience demographic is to take a look at your Facebook page’s insights. The majority of Instagram users are under the age of 35 with most falling into the 18-30 age bracket. So if your brand is marketing to this younger generation then Instagram could be a great source of traffic for you.

Of course, when you first get started on Instagram you will need to start rounding up some followers. The good news is that the following infographic from WhoIsHostingThis.com (click here to visit) will help you to double your Instagram followers in just five minutes each day. It offers a wide selection of tips that will help you to not only choose the best types of images to share, but also how to interact with your audience.

]]>http://smokinggunpr.co.uk/2014/07/guest-post-business-instagram/feed/0instagram infographicSocial media marketing: 5 mistakes people still make on Twitterhttp://smokinggunpr.co.uk/2014/07/social-media-marketing-5-mistakes-people-still-make-twitter/
http://smokinggunpr.co.uk/2014/07/social-media-marketing-5-mistakes-people-still-make-twitter/#commentsWed, 09 Jul 2014 11:57:59 +0000http://smokinggunpr.co.uk/?p=7798As expert digital public relations professionals and deft social media marketing types it goes without saying it’s our business to keep abreast of best practice when it comes to the world’s most popular 140-character-based network. Not that we want to blow our own trumpet too loudly. Of course the pace of development on Twitter, and pretty much every other social...

As expert digital public relations professionals and deft social media marketing types it goes without saying it’s our business to keep abreast of best practice when it comes to the world’s most popular 140-character-based network. Not that we want to blow our own trumpet too loudly.

Of course the pace of development on Twitter, and pretty much every other social network worth its weight in members, is rather overwhelming. But, if there’s one thing that continues to surprise us it’s that many people still don’t really understand the fundamental ways in which should be used to garner the best results.

And without that there’s very little chance of ever mastering the art of tweeting, building followers, and elevating your status, or that of your business, to the position of an online maestro. With this in mind we thought it would be wise to run through five of the most obvious mistakes users continue to make when operating in this area of cyberspace, so take a look below and see which you’re guilty of; any complete innocents can, naturally, proceed directly to the top of the class.

Beginning all tweets mentioning another user with @

Let’s say, for example, that you want to including @SmokinggunPR in a tweet, but the content is relevant to a wider audience. By opening with our handle, @SmokingGunPR, you restrict who can see that update to people who follow both our Twitter account, and yours. The simplest way to avoid this is by adding a full-stop before the @, therefore ensuring all your followers, and all our followers, will see the message.

Getting involved with members of Team Followback

There’s a good chance you’ve seen things like Team Followback written either on account descriptions or within tweets themselves. In short, this means that if you follow that handle then the owner will automatically reciprocate the gesture. Our best advice is to avoid like the plague- not only is there a strong likelihood the moniker is a front for some robotic marketing firm, even if it is a real person getting involved with them is only going to make you look desperate.

Just because someone sent you an @message it’s OK not to respond

This could well be the most damaging mistake on our list. When you receive a direct message- for instance “@SmokingGunPR we love you, you are the greatest people in the world” – it’s vitally important to respond, and not just out of courtesy. Unresponsive business accounts are usually seen as engaging in poor customer service practices, and once that reputation has developed it’s very hard to reverse those negative assumptions.

It’s OK to send the same tweet several times in the same day

A definite no-no, what do you think people take from an account that keeps re-issuing the same 140-character message in a single day? That’s right; whoever is responsible for the handle is lazy and lacks the creative nouse to even slightly re-word or re-structure the tweet. Granted, some statements either deserve or need to be made more than once, but how you do that can mean the difference between success and failure.

Auto-posting to Facebook is acceptable

No, it isn’t. As with our previous point, accounts that automatically send tweets to Facebook, where they are changed into status updates, never come across well in the eyes of the general public. Think of it like this; the two networks are entirely different, offer very different options in terms of what can be done and as such should be treated as two autonomous entities. It may take more time, but the results will be significantly better when you make an effort to exploit their unique qualities.

]]>http://smokinggunpr.co.uk/2014/07/social-media-marketing-5-mistakes-people-still-make-twitter/feed/0twittermistakes1Food and drink PR case study: Making music videos that sellhttp://smokinggunpr.co.uk/2014/05/food-drink-pr-case-study-making-music-videos-sell/
http://smokinggunpr.co.uk/2014/05/food-drink-pr-case-study-making-music-videos-sell/#commentsThu, 29 May 2014 09:09:54 +0000http://smokinggunpr.co.uk/?p=7611One of our recent endeavours saw us get behind the camera to produce a promo video for one of our most beloved brands, assisted in no small part by a pair of aspiring young performers from one of the region’s finest seats of learning. Read on to discover how we secured food and drink PR success through ingenious thinking and deft songwriting....

One of our recent endeavours saw us get behind the camera to produce a promo video for one of our most beloved brands, assisted in no small part by a pair of aspiring young performers from one of the region’s finest seats of learning. Read on to discover how we secured food and drink PR success through ingenious thinking and deft songwriting.

Objectives

Raise awareness of Peanut Hottie amongst its core target age group of 25 – 35 year olds Create memorable and shareable branded online content during a quiet sales period Encourage Peanut Hottie’s social media community to generate additional content

Strategy & Plan

Following a successful launch of the world’s first peanut butter flavoured hot drink, Peanut Hottie, we were set the challenge of continuing to grow the brand’s social media community and build high levels of engagement from the brand’s fans. This led to the creation of a social media campaign pegged around a song and music video that would act an ode to the product.

Inspired by the Peanut Hottie strap line- Take Me Home– we worked with a pair of students from the world famous Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA), who developed a new ‘brand anthem’ inspired by the Franz Ferdinand classic, Take Me Out.

Once the lyrics were written it wasn’t long until our dynamic duo, Chris and Django, created this music video in honour of the unique hot drink…

Now the task was to get Peanut Hottie’s social media community involved, so we developed a competition wherein the public filmed themselves dancing, singing and lip syncing to the song for a chance to win an iPad and one year’s supply of Peanut Hottie.

Measurement & Results

We measured the outcome of the campaign in fours ways:

– The number of video entries

– The number of views of the original song

– The number of media hits

– The levels of engagement on the Facebook page

The results

We received 10 entries from across the country, each lasting approximately a minute. The original music video created by Django and Chris has received over 2,500 unique views. We also secured four pieces of media coverage on the students creating this unique song, with Facebook engagement levels remaining at 5%, well above the the average of 2%. Meanwhile, the total number of impressions on social media was up 9% on the previous period, and, perhaps most importantly, during in this time sales figures for one listed retailer were four times that of the industry standard.